Searching for answers, fighting for a new approach

All three were moms, had friends and family, dreams and setbacks, ordinary elements of lives like everyone else.

But that’s not it. Their bond comes from the list of missing persons on the London police website.

The three sit at the top.

All three engaged in what police call a “high-risk lifestyle,” a euphemism for drug addiction and involvement in sex work, whether on the street, or in an escort service, strip club or body rub parlour.

“That is pretty startling, to have a group of sex workers missing in those numbers,” said Alissa Watt, an advocate for missing persons in southern Ontario.

The disappearances raise a number of questions, she says: are they connected? Are police doing enough to help sex workers? Are their disappearances treated with the same investigative intensity as the disappearance of others?

London police don’t use the word startling to describe the three disappearances.

“Any disappearance is of concern,” London police Insp. Kevin Heslop said. “Of course there is greater concern if there is a clear connection between cases.”

The women share surface similarities, roughly the same height and weight, each with long brown hair, raising speculation on social media about a connection between their disappearances.

“We have investigated this fully and determined there is no connection,” Heslop said in a series of emailed responses to Free Press questions. “We cannot discuss why we have ruled out a connection without disclosing all the inside information on each case.”

In London, the disappearances have occurred under the eyes of a renowned program to keep street-level sex workers safe, headed by Sgt. Lorna Bruce.

“If sex workers are at specific risk, we alert them through such things as information sheets, etc., that outline a description of a suspect or a suspect vehicle, in addition to investigators or Sgt. Bruce speaking with them directly,” Heslop said. “Unfortunately, sex trade workers are always at greater risk of harm than the general public.”

Their lifestyles often create distant relationships with family and friends, he said.

“. . . It is not uncommon for sex trade workers to be absent for extended periods of time, then reappear. That usually explains why missing persons reports for sex trade workers are often received days or weeks after they were last seen,” Heslop said. “However, that delay also typically makes an investigation more time-consuming.”

Some friends and relatives of the missing women complain a bigger problem is that police still don’t take the disappearances of sex workers as seriously as those of other people.

In the latest case, both elements seemed to be at play. Desrochers was last seen in public in early January, but her disappearance was not reported to police until Jan. 21.

Police did not issue a missing persons notice for several days, insisting the fact London media outlets were reporting the case made their own release unnecessary. But when police issued a release about Desrochers, it provided information media stories had not.

The lack of a police release surprises Watt. She’s the founder and executive director of the Missed Lives Project, a Hamilton based non-profit organization that educates the public about missing persons, helps families and helps in searches by publicizing details of cases.

“You need a variety of tactics all at once in a search,” Watt said. Sex workers “are often targeted and need special attention.”

But in general, missing sex workers “are often considered the least urgent cases by police,” she said.

As evidence, Watt points to the 2012 Missing Women Commission of Inquiry prompted by serial killer Robert Pickton in British Columbia.

The inquiry surveyed 20 police forces — London’s was not one of them — about the way they handled missing persons reports in 1997 and in 2013.

“In 1997/1998, the vast majority of responding police agencies stated that such factors as whether the missing person was a woman, a sex trade worker or a drug addict, had a history of going missing, or was transient or believed to be of no fixed address had no effect on the acceptance or investigation of missing person reports,” the inquiry reported.

Little has changed since then.

“The majority of responding police agencies stated that the above factors continue to have no effect on the acceptance or investigation of missing persons reports.”

However, some police forces do now consider whether a person was involved in the sex trade or dependent on drugs as a factor in prioritizing a search, the inquiry reported.

Hamilton police include a woman’s aboriginal heritage as a key factor in prioritizing searches.

London police do not include a woman’s involvement in the sex trade as one of the criteria in prioritizing searches, said spokesperson Const. Sandasha Bough.

Nor do they include a woman’s indigenous heritage, she said.

“ . . . We don’t textbook any of our missing persons into specific groups. All vulnerable persons, whether they are young or elderly, are important to us,” Bough said.

“We also look at weather and health concerns when determining the urgency of the search for that missing person.”

In other urban centres, the disappearances and deaths of and assaults on sex workers have prompted police to set up special task forces.

The killing of five women between 1995 and 2006 led to a Niagara task force that resulted in one person being charged with two homicides.

Hamilton and Halton police launched the joint Project Advocate to investigate the disappearance of two sex workers, the killing of one, and attacks on five others in 2001 and 2002.

Project Advocate led to the arrest of two men eventually convicted of sex assault, and the attacks stopped after they were jailed, according to Hamilton news reports.

London police appear to have little inclination to create a task force or conduct a probe here.

Police say they can’t determine if the women’s disappearances had anything to do with their lifestyles, and in some of the three cases, have never officially confirmed what those lifestyles involved.

Police here say they cannot determine yet what even happened to Desrochers, whether she is in hiding or in trouble.

London police do not keep statistics on assaults on sex workers, so it’s not clear how widespread the problem might be or if there are trends over time.

Although there were only a handful of charges in 2013 and 2014 involving assaults against sex workers, women surveyed by London researchers said violence is frequent, a common element of their lives.

“We look for links when investigating any missing person,” Bough said. “We will assign specific task forces to investigate if we feel it necessary.”

That response will likely do little to quell the criticism of police by many of the three women’s friends.

But police aren’t the only ones who have to change how they approach the dangers and disappearances of sex workers, Watt said.

The media needs to change as well, in order for the public to change, she said.

First, reporters have to give the disappearance of at-risk women the same attention as other citizens, she says.

Those reports, however, shouldn’t focus solely on how the women made their living.

For many people, learning a woman is in the sex trade or addicted to drugs is enough to stop caring and stop looking, Watt says.

Media must focus on what make the women the same as everyone else, families, hobbies, personalities, friends.

“At the end of the day, people are going to feel more sympathetic to a person like them,” Watt says.

The Free Press has wrestled with that issue. The newspaper hesitated publishing Desrochers’ involvement in the sex trade when she first disappeared, on the advice of friends who did not want her to face the public stigma when found.

But as time passed, and after police released an official missing persons notice — when Desrochers failed to access her bank account as expected Jan. 29 — The Free Press published information about her involvement in the sex trade.

Family and friends approved of that approach at the time, but a story in the newspaper Tuesday that focused on her work sparked a chorus of complaints on social media.

The story put a label on Desrochers that in the minds of many would discount her value to society, her friends complained.

So this story will end with three additional descriptions of the women, different from the usual provided by police and media.

Gleaned from past interviews with family and friends, these descriptions provide a hint of who is really missing:

Kathryn Bordato

Once a track athlete who set school records in Leamington

Mother of a son and daughter

Through all her struggles, kept a roof over their heads and made sure they had good Christmases

“I’d like people to know, when you see someone on the street, that’s someone’s son, mother, father . . . be respectful of them. If there’s a chance for you to help, please do, because the worst feeling in the world is not being able to say good night to your mom.” Son Zach Bordato

Vanessa Fotheringham

Described as loving, bubbly and funny

Mother to a young daughter about whom she talked non-stop

Once a little girl herself who enjoyed sleepovers, playing house, singing to the Spice Girls

“At the end of the day, whether you want to pass your judgment on the life decisions she made, you need to know that there are 60 people in my family who love her very much.” Cousin Julie Stacey

Shelley Joy Desrochers

Described as loving, kind and funny

Known for big smile and living up to her name, Joy

Mother of one boy, grandmother to another

Nickname: Shelleybean

“Shelley is kind hearted with a fierce heart and unquestionable loyalty to her friends and family . . . I miss the way she giggles, the way she walks, the things she finds funny, the random acts of kindness she was inspired to do for others.” Longtime friend Elizabeth Minogue

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